The imaginative uses of the mighty presidency in
American history and its bully pulpit have rarely been much above amateurish
when it comes to helping people empower themselves. This has been the case even
when the same party controls the White House and both Houses of Congress.

Consider the last opportunities when Clinton and
Obama were in that enviable position, during 1993-1994 and 2009-2010,
respectively. Both Clinton and Obama fell short, unable even to get an adequate
public works agenda passed through Congress (Repair America) that would have
produced good, un-exportable jobs in many communities.

Now Obama has lots of excuses as to why this and
that cannot be accomplished. Due to his and the congressional Democrats' inept
political hands against the vulnerably vicious and corporatist Republican
Party, Obama points to the Republican's email Senate filibusters, and the
stubborn postures of Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor as reasons for not
really pushing, for example, for a very popular minimum wage that catches up
with 1968, inflation-adjusted. (See timeforaraise.org .)

So let's lower the bar and ask why Mr. Obama
doesn't just use his high visibility to put forces in motion that strengthen
our democratic society without requiring legislation or tax revenues? Here are
some suggestions, out of many:

1. Obama could announce his
desire to speak to a convocation of leaders of national civic groups that have
millions of members around the country. He could highlight their good works via
the mass media. He could prompt more philanthropy, especially from the very
rich, to these worthy organizations that work to help the poor, children, the
environment, beleaguered communities and others in need. An annual
increase of only $10 billion in private donations for more staff positions
would produce more than 300,000 jobs a year and provide serious help to
millions of people.

I wrote the president last year urging him to
visit any Washington, D.C. hotel ballroom to meet with civic leaders, as did
president-elect Jimmy Carter in 1976. The office of Michelle Obama replied that
his schedule did not have time for such a gathering. Yet, he has gone to numerous
distant factories to promote products, even going all the way to India to urge
Indians to purchase Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Boeing airplanes.

2. After graduating from
Columbia University, young Barack Obama worked for a few months at the New York
Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) -- a large and well-regarded,
student-funded public interest organization involved in numerous community
improvements around the state -- advocating justice, not charity.

PIRGs operate in about 30 states. Not once has
Obama addressed their gatherings and urged that all colleges and universities
should provide similar check-offs that would enable millions of students to
develop extracurricular civic skills and experiences while improving their
society.

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Engaging civil society helps balance Obama's
exhortations to students to seek occupational training at institutions of
higher education. The president has declined to use his community organizing
reputation in New York and Chicago to focus the public and the media on such
simple ways to strengthen our weakening democracy.

There is no need to dwell much on comparisons of
how much time he has spent cloistered with very wealthy campaign contributors
who are further undermining our democracy.

3. The warring president
might expend some of his fame to bring attention to those Americans who are
waging peace through direct field involvement, advocacy or with peace studies.
The corporate-criminal class gets the presence of the president at trade
association meetings, but not the likes of the American Friends Service
Committee or Colman McCarthy's Center for Teaching Peace working to expand
peace studies curricula at high schools and colleges (h ttp://washingtonpeacecenter.net ).

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4. What about visiting
events defending unions under attack by right-wing governors and their
corporatist allies or encouraging workers in large companies to unionize as he
subsidizes these corporate bosses with many programs?

Remarkably, President Obama studiously avoided
going to Madison, Wisconsin in 2011 to support the rallying of workers against
Governor Scott Walker's moves to stripmine worker rights. He also banned Vice
President Joe Biden (a self-styled union man) from accepting an invitation
there by the Wisconsin Labor Federation.

By contrast, he walked across Lafayette Park in
February 2011 to pay homage to the chronically selfish and anti-labor U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. He could have gone around the corner to visit the AFL-CIO
representing 13 million American workers, but he declined.

5. Championing, through
check-off facilities, so that people can voluntarily band together around
specific endeavors would be easy for the president. He could start by
establishing check-offs for taxpayer watchdog associations on the 1040 tax
return and periodic postal notices to residential addresses inviting people to
join a postal consumers' group. Corporations are massively over-represented
compared to citizens at the councils of government.
All companies receiving corporate welfare from
taxpayers should be required, as a condition of getting these subsidies,
handouts and bailouts, to include in their bills and communications with
customers invitations for consumers to band together and support nonprofit
organizations with full-time consumer champions fighting for their rights.

Just about every industry in the country --
banking, utilities, insurance, fuel, healthcare, food -- is on the dole, one way
or the other. This simple reciprocity would facilitate tens of millions of
Americans to have an organized voice and expertise to defend and extend their
livelihoods ( http://www.citizensutilityboard.org/ ).

If President Obama sweats the small stuff, he
will empower the American people to take greater charge of their government and
their future over the destructive and cowardly corporatism that now dominates
Washington, D.C.

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Author Mark Taliano combines years of research with on-the-ground observations to present an informed and well-documented analysis that refutes the mainstream media narrative.